The family-owned firm that had proposed constructing the world’s tallest flagpole within the woods of Washington County has dropped the venture, in line with the Maine Monitor.
Worcester Sources, which relies in Columbia Falls, had proposed to construct a so-called Flagpole of Freedom that may have stood 1,461 toes tall — taller than the Empire State Constructing — and flown an American flag bigger than a soccer discipline. Symbolically, it will have stood a complete of 1,776 toes above sea stage. The $1 billion venture would even have included a 2,500-acre park.
“The standing is they’re now not proposing that venture as envisioned,” an lawyer for the Worcester Sources, Tim Pease, advised the Monitor.
They’ll “now not be pursuing the plan wherever,” Pease mentioned. “They want to the longer term and different methods to honor veterans.” Pease mentioned he didn’t know the corporate’s causes for canceling the venture.
The Worcester household additionally runs a vacation wreath enterprise and Wreaths Throughout America, a corporation which commemorates veterans. It had proposed the flagpole venture in the identical spirit and argued that it will deliver wanted jobs and financial improvement to the area. It was to be partly funded by donations.
“We wish to deliver Individuals collectively, remind them of the centuries of sacrifice made to guard our freedom, and unite a divided America,” the corporate’s founder, Morrill Worcester, advised the Related Press final 12 months.
However the venture was far-fetched from the beginning, with projections that it will deliver 6 million guests a 12 months and create 5,000 jobs in distant Washington County. Below the corporate’s imaginative and prescient, it will have primarily constructed a neighborhood from scratch to help the operation, together with miles of looping roads and gondolas, in addition to a number of villages, campgrounds, a resort, eating places and retailers.
The venture additionally proved divisive, with opponents arguing that these sources can be higher spent on direct providers for veterans, and a few space residents fearing it will spoil the pure fantastic thing about the Down East area.
The choice to cancel the venture got here as Columbia Falls was set to vote in March on new codes that may prohibit such large-scale developments, in line with the Monitor.
The Worcester household hoped to construct the venture on unorganized territory overseen by Maine’s Land Use Planning Fee, but it surely had sought to have Columbia Falls annex the land to assist velocity up the allowing. That led the city to cross a moratorium on large-scale improvement and contemplate the stricter guidelines that might be voted on in March.
